Aerosols for therapeutic purposes, which have to satisfy high requirements, are generated with inhalation therapy devices. The requirements arise from the therapy to be carried out with the inhalation therapy device. The core piece of an inhalation therapy device is the aerosol generator, which, when actuated by a control unit for aerosol generation provided in the inhalation therapy device, generates an aerosol from a medicament that is often in the form of a liquid formulation or another fluid. In an advantageous embodiment, the aerosol generator comprises at least one membrane and an oscillation generator, the membrane being caused to oscillate by the oscillation generator and then generating an aerosol from the medicament supplied on the one side of the membrane, which is released on the other side of the membrane. The resulting aerosol cloud expands in a spatial area located in front of the aerosol generator, which is often realised as a chamber in the housing of the inhalation therapy device. In order to minimise medicament loss, the shape and size of the chamber are advantageously configured such that as few aerosol droplets/particles as possible become deposited on the wall of the chamber.
The use of inhalation therapy devices in connection with ventilation devices by means of which a patient is ventilated or receives a breathing pattern predetermined by the supplied ventilation air is problematic since the carefully coordinated generation and expansion of the aerosol cloud must be harmonised with the introduction of the aerosol into the ventilation air.
A connection device for this purpose is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,661, which comprises a T-shaped tube member that is inserted into the ventilation air hose of a ventilation device that leads to the patient. An aerosol generator is provided on the tube piece which discharges in a vertical direction into the tube piece that can be inserted into the respiratory air hose, said aerosol generator generating an aerosol cloud which enters the ventilation air via the discharging tube piece. The design of the T-piece is not optimal in terms of flow technology, which leads to considerable aerosol loss, and thus to losses in medicament. DE 103 20 143 A also proposes T-shaped connections to a ventilation hose, via which an aerosol provided by an aerosol generator is introduced into the ventilation hose. The T-pieces known from DE 103 20 143 A are, however, designed in a considerably more effective manner as regards flow technology since virtually the entire cross-section of the tube piece discharging into the ventilation hose is available for supply of the aerosol.
Aerosol losses nevertheless occur time and again in connection with the known T-pieces for connecting an inhalation therapy device to a ventilation air hose of a ventilation device owing to the deposition of aerosol droplets/particles on various surfaces.